JAYA JAYA RAGHUVEERA SAMARTHA
SRI RAMA JAYA RAMA JAYA JAYA RAMA
The Master Calls Me - Pujya Acharya Sri Ekkirala Bharadwaja
Acharya Sri Ekkirala Bharadwaja Experience With Sri Samartha Narayana Maharaj Harihar
Acharya Sri Ekkirala Bharadwaja Experience With Sri Samartha Narayana Maharaj Harihar
In 1963, my elder brother Sri E. Vedavyas invited me to join him on his
visit to Shirdi. Though I had little faith in saints at that time, I
consented just to give him my company. On the 8th of February we
reached Shirdi at sunset and we went straight to the samadhi mandir to attend the arti.
The deep faith that shone on the faces of the congregation for the
saint who left off his physical frame nearly half a century ago, was
surprise to me. Soon after, the devotees dispersed and the shrine was
mostly empty. My brother showed me the tomb at close quarters and told
me that Shri Baba’s mortal remains were kept in it. That being my first
close look of a tomb, I was shocked. My first reaction was to imagine
in what a putrefied condition the body must have been. The marble
structure of the tomb and the
profuse incense that was burnt there made me suppose that it was
intended to keep out any stench that might possibly leak out. The
thought was revolting and nauseating. I at once took leave of my
brother and slept in the room, unable even to relish food, in the wake
of the shock.
Next morning, a keen apetite woke me up and I made straight for the Madras hotel. As I passed before the samadhi mandir, I found that the morning arti was over and the place was almost vacant. The sight of the marble statue over the samadhi attracted my attention and I wanted to have a close look at the form that continues to charm so many devotees. I stepped in and stood at a little distance from the statue and looked at it. It is quite life-like and I felt that the saint must have looked precisely like that. The sculptor must have been divinely inspired in capturing that mysterious smile and the inward look. The look captured my gaze. “What does his face, especially his look and smile, indicate of his attitude? Was he elated that so many visited him to pay their homage, adore and worship him? Or was he overwhelmed with compassion for them? Or, in that mood, was he oblivious of his separate existence, his gaze fixed on the divine mystery, the one omnipresent spirit? Or was it a look of recognition of that ancient spirit, of his contacts with those teeming crowds that had contacted him through their countless previous lives? And, was that smile of reunion pregnant with his joy of their future possibility of reaching the spiritual summit? Or was he just oblivious of all this, lost in his ceaseless contemplation of the one spirit, in his at-one-ment? And is the mysterious Monolisa-smile a manifestation of that peace which passeth understanding? Or is there a possibility that at a higher level of consciousness all these attitudes could coexist without the one interrupting the other?”
This last thought flashed with a particular intensity and my spirit leapt forth to comprehend how, in that state, he was viewing all this existence: “Is the universe of myriad forms an image projected in his consciousness? And am I, then, too, a thought in his Mind and are all these my thoughts parts of it?” The intuition took off and wafted my being into far-off states. I knew of nothing else. My being was still, taut with a particular illumination and my thoughts were both existent and non-existent. I am aware how absurd these words must look to anyone. But what else can they be when I verbalize what cannot be conveyed?
Quite some time lapsed in that timeless moment and I was knocked back into normal awareness by what then felt to me like a rude knocking on my shoulders. It was then that I realized that I was seated and that my eyes were shut, that my cheeks were wet with half-dried tears. The shrine was quite noisy and crowded. I saw my brother patting me gently and asking, “You are still seated here! Had your bath and breakfast? It’s almost lunch time. It’s better to finish our lunch.” His words were quite audible but I found it hard to catch the sense, as though I was abruptly awakened from deep sleep. It was quite disturbing even to endeavour to understand the words and still more to respond, the spirit being totally unwilling to be called out from the heart of peace. It was much easier to just obey what he said. It was nearly four hours since I stepped into the shrine which was getting crowded as the time for noon arti was nearing and the devotees were queing up for finishing abhishek! We walked down to the dining hall but to me it was as though the walk were just a vivid reverie. My mind was all set on sinking back into the state of peace and bliss from which it was roused and with which the connection was not yet completely snapped. It was quite a task to pay particular attention to things and persons.
This mood was persistent and had never quite left me during the brief stay of two days at Shirdi. Perhaps my brother had found out that something unusual was happening to me. “You may go over here again later if you want to, but now we have to go back!” he said. And we were back.
The significant thing, as I see it now in retrospect, is that the spiritual connection with that deeper level of being, continued for months after our return from Shirdi. My mind, when it now and then relapsed into normal awareness, quite instinctively identified that deeper level of Being with Baba. Mostly I was in a continuous state of ineffable peace and quiet and the normal activities of the day were powerless to interrupt it. Days passed as a continuous moment of timelessness; it was as though all things around, including my body, were all parts of a whole which is conscious and aware. Whenever the world around had plucked me into the every day reality, my spirit, once again, at the earliest possible, was summoned back to its pristine state by the vivid appearance of the marble image at Shirdi before my mind’s eye. And then objects and creatures all around would seem to be crystallizations of a pervasive consciousness.
This experience was accompanied by a remarkable change in my physical constitution. My lean frame got filled in with flesh to robustness and I was brimming with energy which was not lowered by late hours of reading at night or by missing my meal now and then. There was a strong urge to walk and walk, almost endlessly, through most of the day and I was not tired. My mind was engrossed in the blissful peace and was not stirred by the traffic on the road. My mind, too, seemed to have grown unusually penetrating. For, the most vexatious of meta-physical questions got cleared in a wink and there seemed practically nothing which it could not comprehend. Often knowledge concerning my friends who were far off, or of the thoughts that passed through my associates’ minds broke in and then I was no less surprised at it than they. Strangely enough, the pervasive peace was shared by all those around me. It was definite that my life turned a corner. The steady current of this experience has ever continued, sometimes quite vivid and sometimes a little less so.
After three or four months followed my second visit to Shirdi. This time no such spectacular experience occurred but I keenly felt that I was visiting a saint who has been my guiding Spirit through lives, that he was somehow connected with my initiation into the quest for knowledge eight years earlier. There was only an intense personal attachment to the Master, and the sense of not having the good fortune of seeing Him in flesh and blood in this life. “What could have happened then? Now that I cannot hope for this, could I at least see any living saint? What would be his impact on me?” This was the object of my prayer at Baba’s samadhi mandir.
The response was prompt and striking, as has always been characteristic of him. During the years that followed, I could come into close contact with numerous saints and bask in their blessings: Mother Anasuyadevi of Jillellamudi, Sri Ranganna Babu (a great Ramabhaktha of Guntur), the late Avadhuta Swami of Chirala, the guru of the Chinthapalli forests of Sileru area, Sri Swami Purnananda of Srisailam, his guru Sri Rakhadi Baba who stayed at Ganeshpuri, Sri Satya Sai Baba, the two Balayogis of Mummidivaram, the Senior Sankaracharyaji of Kanchi, Sri Ma Anandamayi, Sri Akhandananda Saraswati of Muthra, the recluse saints of Kalahasthi and Cuddapah, the recluse woman saint of Chivatam, Sri Samartha Narayana Maharaj of Harihar, and the Saint of Poondi. Besides, I had darshan of some famous devotees of Sri Sai Baba. I saw others like Mother Revati Amma of Madras, and Sri Gulab Maharaj of Nagpur. It is not possible to detail here my experiences with these saints, but one significant feature in all these was I could win their gracious attention only after specifically praying to Sri Baba for the same. Baba was thus once more proving three things simultaneously; he is still alive in spirit and would gladly bless us with the best at our hearty praying; that he is still one with the being of the saints of today even as he was when he lived in flesh and blood; that he can be a competent guru or Master (Samarth Sadguru) to his ardent devotee even today. For a time, a few friends told me that I was on a “saint-gathering” spree and not stabilized on any one. I was not effected by this criticism. Now in retrospect, I am happy to find that, fortunately, my faith in Baba, if anything, grew deeper and has been constant all through. Baba’s invisible hand was leading me to act according to the scriptural injunction;
Next morning, a keen apetite woke me up and I made straight for the Madras hotel. As I passed before the samadhi mandir, I found that the morning arti was over and the place was almost vacant. The sight of the marble statue over the samadhi attracted my attention and I wanted to have a close look at the form that continues to charm so many devotees. I stepped in and stood at a little distance from the statue and looked at it. It is quite life-like and I felt that the saint must have looked precisely like that. The sculptor must have been divinely inspired in capturing that mysterious smile and the inward look. The look captured my gaze. “What does his face, especially his look and smile, indicate of his attitude? Was he elated that so many visited him to pay their homage, adore and worship him? Or was he overwhelmed with compassion for them? Or, in that mood, was he oblivious of his separate existence, his gaze fixed on the divine mystery, the one omnipresent spirit? Or was it a look of recognition of that ancient spirit, of his contacts with those teeming crowds that had contacted him through their countless previous lives? And, was that smile of reunion pregnant with his joy of their future possibility of reaching the spiritual summit? Or was he just oblivious of all this, lost in his ceaseless contemplation of the one spirit, in his at-one-ment? And is the mysterious Monolisa-smile a manifestation of that peace which passeth understanding? Or is there a possibility that at a higher level of consciousness all these attitudes could coexist without the one interrupting the other?”
This last thought flashed with a particular intensity and my spirit leapt forth to comprehend how, in that state, he was viewing all this existence: “Is the universe of myriad forms an image projected in his consciousness? And am I, then, too, a thought in his Mind and are all these my thoughts parts of it?” The intuition took off and wafted my being into far-off states. I knew of nothing else. My being was still, taut with a particular illumination and my thoughts were both existent and non-existent. I am aware how absurd these words must look to anyone. But what else can they be when I verbalize what cannot be conveyed?
Quite some time lapsed in that timeless moment and I was knocked back into normal awareness by what then felt to me like a rude knocking on my shoulders. It was then that I realized that I was seated and that my eyes were shut, that my cheeks were wet with half-dried tears. The shrine was quite noisy and crowded. I saw my brother patting me gently and asking, “You are still seated here! Had your bath and breakfast? It’s almost lunch time. It’s better to finish our lunch.” His words were quite audible but I found it hard to catch the sense, as though I was abruptly awakened from deep sleep. It was quite disturbing even to endeavour to understand the words and still more to respond, the spirit being totally unwilling to be called out from the heart of peace. It was much easier to just obey what he said. It was nearly four hours since I stepped into the shrine which was getting crowded as the time for noon arti was nearing and the devotees were queing up for finishing abhishek! We walked down to the dining hall but to me it was as though the walk were just a vivid reverie. My mind was all set on sinking back into the state of peace and bliss from which it was roused and with which the connection was not yet completely snapped. It was quite a task to pay particular attention to things and persons.
This mood was persistent and had never quite left me during the brief stay of two days at Shirdi. Perhaps my brother had found out that something unusual was happening to me. “You may go over here again later if you want to, but now we have to go back!” he said. And we were back.
The significant thing, as I see it now in retrospect, is that the spiritual connection with that deeper level of being, continued for months after our return from Shirdi. My mind, when it now and then relapsed into normal awareness, quite instinctively identified that deeper level of Being with Baba. Mostly I was in a continuous state of ineffable peace and quiet and the normal activities of the day were powerless to interrupt it. Days passed as a continuous moment of timelessness; it was as though all things around, including my body, were all parts of a whole which is conscious and aware. Whenever the world around had plucked me into the every day reality, my spirit, once again, at the earliest possible, was summoned back to its pristine state by the vivid appearance of the marble image at Shirdi before my mind’s eye. And then objects and creatures all around would seem to be crystallizations of a pervasive consciousness.
This experience was accompanied by a remarkable change in my physical constitution. My lean frame got filled in with flesh to robustness and I was brimming with energy which was not lowered by late hours of reading at night or by missing my meal now and then. There was a strong urge to walk and walk, almost endlessly, through most of the day and I was not tired. My mind was engrossed in the blissful peace and was not stirred by the traffic on the road. My mind, too, seemed to have grown unusually penetrating. For, the most vexatious of meta-physical questions got cleared in a wink and there seemed practically nothing which it could not comprehend. Often knowledge concerning my friends who were far off, or of the thoughts that passed through my associates’ minds broke in and then I was no less surprised at it than they. Strangely enough, the pervasive peace was shared by all those around me. It was definite that my life turned a corner. The steady current of this experience has ever continued, sometimes quite vivid and sometimes a little less so.
After three or four months followed my second visit to Shirdi. This time no such spectacular experience occurred but I keenly felt that I was visiting a saint who has been my guiding Spirit through lives, that he was somehow connected with my initiation into the quest for knowledge eight years earlier. There was only an intense personal attachment to the Master, and the sense of not having the good fortune of seeing Him in flesh and blood in this life. “What could have happened then? Now that I cannot hope for this, could I at least see any living saint? What would be his impact on me?” This was the object of my prayer at Baba’s samadhi mandir.
The response was prompt and striking, as has always been characteristic of him. During the years that followed, I could come into close contact with numerous saints and bask in their blessings: Mother Anasuyadevi of Jillellamudi, Sri Ranganna Babu (a great Ramabhaktha of Guntur), the late Avadhuta Swami of Chirala, the guru of the Chinthapalli forests of Sileru area, Sri Swami Purnananda of Srisailam, his guru Sri Rakhadi Baba who stayed at Ganeshpuri, Sri Satya Sai Baba, the two Balayogis of Mummidivaram, the Senior Sankaracharyaji of Kanchi, Sri Ma Anandamayi, Sri Akhandananda Saraswati of Muthra, the recluse saints of Kalahasthi and Cuddapah, the recluse woman saint of Chivatam, Sri Samartha Narayana Maharaj of Harihar, and the Saint of Poondi. Besides, I had darshan of some famous devotees of Sri Sai Baba. I saw others like Mother Revati Amma of Madras, and Sri Gulab Maharaj of Nagpur. It is not possible to detail here my experiences with these saints, but one significant feature in all these was I could win their gracious attention only after specifically praying to Sri Baba for the same. Baba was thus once more proving three things simultaneously; he is still alive in spirit and would gladly bless us with the best at our hearty praying; that he is still one with the being of the saints of today even as he was when he lived in flesh and blood; that he can be a competent guru or Master (Samarth Sadguru) to his ardent devotee even today. For a time, a few friends told me that I was on a “saint-gathering” spree and not stabilized on any one. I was not effected by this criticism. Now in retrospect, I am happy to find that, fortunately, my faith in Baba, if anything, grew deeper and has been constant all through. Baba’s invisible hand was leading me to act according to the scriptural injunction;
Reference From The Book: Saibaba The Master
-Pujya Acharya Sri Ekkirala Bharadwaja.
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